One victim in Pullman Ave. shooting dies as police hunt for suspect

A Wednesday morning shooting on Pullman Avenue left a woman dead, a man critically wounded and the Monroe County District Attorney's office locked down as police hunted for a suspect they called armed and dangerous.

Rochester police, who also placed their own Public Safety Building on alert, were searching Wednesday for Marcus Freeman, 26, who they said was identified by two other people shot at on Pullman about 10:30 a.m., but who were not struck.

Court records indicate Freeman was indicted June 14 for first-degree rape and was free on $20,000 bail. "If located, do NOT approach and call 911," a news release issued by Rochester police warned.

Wednesday's shooting shook the neighborhood just south of Route 104 near Dewey Avenue, and residents of that neighborhood — many of whom were relaxing in the bright sunshine in their front yards and witnessed the chaotic scene — say a delay in the police response to the shooting was too long for such a violent event.

Police said Freeman opened fire outside a home in the 200-block of Pullman Avenue, striking a woman, Walesy Alvarez, 27, in the backseat of a car and a man, 32, who was near the car. Both were taken to Strong Memorial Hospital and were in surgery following the shooting with life-threatening injuries, said Sgt. Elena Correia. Alvarez died at 6:15 p.m.

Two people who had been with the victims when the shooting began fled into a home and the shooter pursued them inside, Correia said. More shots were fired there, but neither of them were struck.

Correia said the victims were targeted.

"This was not random," she said.

Pullman Avenue resident Shelaine Davis said she was getting ready for work when the shooting happened, and later saw the man lying in a yard bleeding, and a woman in the back of a car who was not moving.

"I heard, 'pop, pop' so I looked out my window," Davis said. "I thought it was them working on the roof because they use those types of machines.

"We are just sick and tired of the Taliban that lives amongst us," Davis said, likening the shooters in the city to terrorists. "People with guns should be arrested and put in jail. That's where they need to be. We're tired of it. It's sad. I could have been sitting in my chair and got shot today, just by sitting here minding my own business."

Lawyers on lockdown

About an hour after the shooting, two armed Monroe County sheriff's deputies took posts behind the glass doors to the district attorney's office and the doors were locked, restricting traffic in or out of the building.

District Attorney Sandra Doorley, who was not at the office on Wednesday but called for the lockdown, said it was the first time in the nearly 23 years she has worked at the office that the office was locked down due to concern over a suspect.

She said she ordered the lockdown as a precaution based on a "general threat" that Freeman allegedly made against law enforcement that was discovered during the Pullman Avenue investigation. She declined to elaborate and said she was was unsure how long the lockdown would last.

"In the abundance of caution, after conferring with other people, we decided to lockdown the district attorney's office, not let civilians in and escort assistant ADAs to court and their vehicles," she said.

At 4 p.m., Rochester police released Freeman's name as the person they believe shot the couple on Pullman.

Court records show Freeman was indicted June 14 for first-degree rape and that case is pending. Doorley confirmed that the people shot on Pullman were related to the alleged victim in the rape, but declined to offer additional details.

Freeman has previous convictions for criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a controlled substance, court and corrections records show.

Neither police nor Doorley would comment on a possible motive for the Pullman Avenue shootings or for the specific concern for members of the district attorney's office.

"There being a perceived threat, although general in nature...I was concerned for the safety of my staff," Doorley said.

Response time in question

Davis said she called 911 after the first round of shots, but could not get through to a dispatcher on several attempts.

"I couldn't even get through, it was just ringing," she said. "It took about eight or nine calls to get them, it took them forever to even answer the call and get the report. They need some help down there."

"I don't know what is going on in this city, what's taking them so long to get to these scenes, but we are tired, we are tired of children getting killed and dying in our streets. If police could have gotten here sooner, they could have apprehended the person who did this."

Another Pullman resident, Keith Perez, agreed, and said he was waiting for his two grandchildren to arrive when the shooting occurred.

"When things are happening it seems like forever, I know that, but I was sitting at my computer and I heard between six and eight shots," he said. "I waited a minute and then I came out, and I look down and there was a guy running up the street away from the scene and he's yelling to his friends, 'come on.' He was trying to escape whatever it was."

Perez said he called 911, and a few minutes later saw the man running back down the street.

"They're down there, I call 911 again and ask them what the hell is taking so long? They said 'well, we've got police coming.' It must have been 10 minutes before the police officer got here. And I live here, there are police all over. Which is fine but how can it possibly be that they didn't have even one cop here within a minute? I don't understand that."

Chief James Sheppard acknowledged there was a brief delay in the police response due to another incident that officers were addressing, but said the response time was in the range of an average response for this type of incident.

He said the first call to 911 came in at 10:28 a.m., the officers were dispatched at 10:30 a.m., and they arrived on scene at 10:34 a.m.

"We'd have loved to have been here sooner, but I can understand the concern that has been expressed relative to the delay," Sheppard said.

The department later released in this statement: "A six minute response time is not unusual for a shots fired incident. Year to date, 69 percent of all SHOTA (priority active shootings or shootings that just occurred) calls have been responded to in 6 min. or less."

Other kinds of shooting calls, such as those originating only with the city's Shotspotter gunshot detection system, saw similar response times.

Davis and Perez voiced their concerns to Sheppard and Richards, respectively, after the two city officials gave a short briefing to the media.

Richards said he would look into Perez's account of the delays.

"We'll certainly look into it, and I heard the times we were here, and while they were a little slow, they're not bad," Richards said. But he added that because the shooting was a targeted incident, an earlier response likely would have not have helped police intercede.

"I don't think that someone could say that it made a difference here," he said. "It makes a difference to the neighbors and I respect that, and when there is trouble police have to arrive to make sure it's not getting out of control, there isn't anything going on."